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Islam is a religion founded by Muhammed , who lived in the 6th and 7th centuries A.D.Smith, p. 218 Its sacred book is the Quran . Those who adhere to Islam are called Muslims. This article discusses some major features of Islamic mythology, the body of traditional stories that belongs to Islam. ISSUES SURROUNDING THE TERM "MYTHOLOGY" In its broadest academic sense, the word simply means a traditional story. However, many scholars restrict the term "myth" to sacred stories.[http://www.faculty.de.gcsu.edu/~mmagouli/defmyth.htm#SACRED] Folklorists often go farther, defining myths as "tales believed as true, usually sacred, set in the distant past or other worlds or parts of the world, and with extra-human, inhuman, or heroic characters".[http://www.faculty.de.gcsu.edu/~mmagouli/defmyth.htm#DEFINING%20MYTH] If "myth", defined by folklorists, are stories both sacred and "believed as true", then the most clear-cut examples of Islamic mythology come from Islamic scripture. However, note that the term "mythology" does not encompass all scriptures. Because a myth is a traditional ''story'', non-narrative scriptures (e.g., proverbs, theological writings) are not themselves "myths". Note also that the term "myth" may not encompass ''all'' stories in Islamic scripture, depending on how strictly one defines the word "myth". One's use of the word "myth" is largely a matter of one's academic discipline. For scholars in religious studies, myths are stories whose main characters are gods or demigods: this definition would actually exclude sacred stories that don't feature God as the center of attention.Segal, p. 5 Some folklorists restrict the word "myth" to stories that describe the creation of the world and of natural phenomena.Zong In-SobSegal, p. 5 By this definition, the Judeo-Christo-Islamic creation storyQuran 11:7 would form a part of Islamic mythology, while the Islamic story of Marium (Mary) giving birth to Isa (Jesus)Quran 19:16-33 would not. In the culture of the ancient Mediterranean world in the context of which early Islam and its legend arose, there often did not exist the separation that exists for many societies in the modern period between fields of history and mythology, or the attempt to discern between Objective truth and Spiritual truths.Eliade, ''Myth and Reality. SUBCATEGORIES The mythology of Islam can be grouped into academic categories:
CENTRAL ISLAM STORIES Life of Muhammed Muhammed was born into late 6th-century Arabia. At that time, the inhabitants practiced a polytheistic religion and lived in tribal groups that frequently feuded. Although married, Muhammed retreated into a cave in , a cultural center of Arabia, to spread his message. Threatened by the possibility of a religious revolution, the Meccan leaders persecuted Muhammed and his followers. They eventually fled to a city called Medina , from which they continued to feud with the Meccans. Eventually Muhammed conquered Mecca, converting its religious center, the Kaaba stone, into the new center of Islamic spirituality. By the time he died, he had brought nearly all of Arabia into the religion of Islam.Smith, pp. 218-27 Note that, by some academic definitions, the traditional story about a historical human character like Muhammed would be a "legend", not a "myth".For some examples of this distinction between "legend" and "myth", see The Kaaba into place, when the Kaaba was rebuilt in the early 600s1.]] According to Islamic tradition, God told Adam to construct a building to be the earthly counterpart of the House of Heaven. This was the giant black stone cube that Muslims call the Kaaba: it stands in the city of Mecca. Later, Abraham and Ishmael had to rebuild the Kaaba on the old foundations. {Link without Title} {Link without Title} The Kaaba was originally intended as a symbolic house for the one monotheistic God. However, after Abraham's death, people started to fill the Kaaba with pagan idols. When Muhammed conquered Mecca, he cleaned out the idols from the Kaaba. It now stands as an important pilgrimage site, which all Muslims are supposed to visit at least once if they are able. Muslims are supposed to pray five times a day while facing in the Kaaba's direction.[http://www.blessingscornucopia.com/Islam_Muslim_Islamic_Sunnah_The_Holy_Kaaba_and_Makkah_of_Islam.htm CONNECTION WITH JEWISH AND CHRISTIAN MYTHOLOGIES Like Judaism and Christianity, Islam is a monotheistic religion. It has much in common with the stories and teachings of Judaism and Christianity, but Muslims believe that Muhammed was the final and ultimate prophet in the Judeo-Christo-Islamic revelation.Smith, p. 218, 230-31 They also believe that the religious texts of the Jews and Christians have been corrupted by the hands of man over the passage of time. Islam incorporates many Biblical events and heroes into its own mythology. Stories about Musa (Moses)Quran 17:2 and Ibrahim (Abraham)Quran 14:35-52 form parts of Islam's scriptures. The Quran retells in detail the Jewish tale of Joseph, who was sold to an Egyptian,Quran 12:7-100 and the Christian tale of Mary, the mother of Jesus.Quran 19:16-33 In both cases, it adds original details and an Islamic interpretation: for instance, in the Islamic version, Jesus speaks while he is still an infantQuran 19:30-33; and he is merely a miraculously-conceived human prophet, not the incarnation of God.Quran 19:35 Unlike many other religions, whose sense of time was basically cyclic, Judaism and Christianity labored to preserve a written linear history and mythic timeline, running from the mythology'' similar to the storyline of the Christian Book Of Revelation and to some elements in the Jewish Book Of Isaiah and Book Of Daniel . Islamic creation myth Islam shares with Judaism and Christianity the story of a world-creating divine act, spaced out over six periods.Quran 11:7 The Islamic creation account, like the Hebrew one, involves Adam And Eve as the first parents, living in an earthly paradise. As in the Hebrew story, God warns Adam and Eve not to eat fruit from a certain tree, but they do anyway, earning expulsion from Paradise .Quran 7:11-25 Islam breaks somewhat with Judaism and Christianity in explaining why Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit. In the actual Hebrew account in Genesis, a snake tempts them to eat the fruit. Extra-biblical , who is a '' Jinni '', a spirit of fire. In Islamic tradition, angels consist of light and lack free will. {Link without Title} In contrast, God created ''jinn'' with free will. He told them to bow before Adam, but Iblis refused, claiming that his fiery nature was superior to Adam's flesh, which consisted of clay.Quran 7:11-12 God cast Iblis out of his friendship, and in revenge Iblis tempted Adam and Eve to disobey God. CONTRASTS WITH JEWISH AND CHRISTIAN MYTHOLOGIES Isaac and Ishmael Like Jewish Hebrews, Muslim Arabs trace their ancestry back to Abraham. Like Jews, Muslims believe that Abraham had two sons, Isaac and Ishmael. While Jews see Isaac as the Hebrews' progenitor, the Muslims trace the Arabs back to Ishmael. However, although agreeing with Jews in terms of ancestry, Muslims shift the emphasis from Isaac to Ishmael. According to Muslim tradition, Ishmael helped Abraham build the Kaaba, and Ishmael's descendants (the Arabs) became the Kaaba's guardians. In addition, while the Bible describes Abraham offering Isaac as a sacrifice to God (before God stops him), the Quran describes the same story, but with Ishmael as the nearly-sacrificed son.Quran 37:99-112. Notice that Isaac (the second son, born after Ishmael) is here described as being born ''after'' the attempted sacrifice. MYTHOLOGICAL BEINGS, PLACES AND EVENTS The following are unique to Islam:
The following Islamic subjects have some elements in common with Jewish and Christian traditions:
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